By Peter Vogt
11 March 2004

Remember going to the toy store as a kid? There were aisles and aisles of doodads, some of which you’d seen advertised on TV or in catalogs, but most of which you’d never heard of before.

If you were anything like I was, you didn’t confine your exploration to the merchandise on one shelf, or even one aisle. No, the entire store was your oyster. If it had been up to you, you would have spent the whole day looking at every toy in the place. And in the process, you probably would have stumbled upon more than one gizmo you would have loved to have.

If only we explored careers the same way. But most of us don’t.

Think of your own situation, whether you’re trying to choose a career path or pick a major. How are you approaching your career or major exploration? Are you walking down every aisle of the store, or are you making the common mistake of exploring only those majors and careers you already know something about?

When you explore majors and careers, be sure you’re truly considering some paths you aren’t already familiar with. If you don’t, you’re not really exploring at all. To ensure your exploration is the real thing, treat it like you did those trips to the toy store as a child.

Follow these tips:

Look on Every Shelf and Go Down Every Aisle

Suppose you’re trying to choose a major. One of your siblings majored in accounting, and a friend suggested you look into computer science. By all means, look at both majors. But don’t overlook the dozens of other majors your school has. Take a good, close look at your school’s course bulletin to see what else you could pursue. Visit the campus admissions office or its Web site to look for brief descriptions of all the majors your institution offers. Research among new college graduates shows that many stumbled upon their majors. Give yourself a chance to stumble upon a major too.

Pick Up What’s on the Shelves

When you were at the toy store, looking was only half the fun. Handling the toys was what really mattered. You had to touch and inspect them. Use this same approach as you research careers and majors. If you’re interested in being a museum curator someday, for example, visit a few museums and talk to some people who work in the field. Find out what publications museum curators read, and see if you can get your hands on them too. You wouldn’t have left the toy store without handling some of the toys; don’t walk through the career store without doing the same thing.

Give Some of the Toys a Try

I’ll bet you never left the toy store without putting at least one of those toy cars on the floor and taking it for a spin. Heck, even as adults, we take the cars we’re interested in for a test drive. So try out the careers and majors you have in mind too. If you’re strongly interested in majoring in psychology, for example, try it out by volunteering at a senior living center over winter break. If you think you want to become a zoologist someday, look into a summer internship at a nearby zoo or aquarium so you can see what the day-to-day work is really like. The more you test the majors and careers that intrigue you, the more informed your decisions about them will be.

Exploring majors and careers may not be as fun as poking around the toy store used to be. Then again, maybe it can be — especially if you’re willing to approach it in the same hands-on way that allows you to shop every aisle. Perhaps you’ll even find a hidden treasure that will lead to a satisfying future.